At Connect 2026, Meta announced that Meta Ray-Ban Display is expanding beyond the US, can be ordered online without a fitting, and is getting third-party app discovery, major navigation improvements, and the Hologram avatar system.
Online Ordering & International Expansion
When launching Meta-Ray-Ban Display at Connect 2025 last year, Meta originally said that the HUD glasses would come to the UK, France, Italy, and Canada in early 2026. But following “unprecedented demand and limited inventory”, back in January, the company announced it was pausing that plan.
To buy the product, you also needed to secure a demo spot at select physical retail stores, at which an attendant would measure your wrist size to get the optimal Meta Neural Band size, as well as tailor your order to your prescription.
David Heaney
Now, Meta-Ray-Ban Display can be purchased online without a store demo, and it’s also available both online and in select stores in the UK and Canada.
It will also be available to buy in France, Italy & Germany on October 13.
In the UK it starts at £749, in Canada at CA$1149, and in Europe €899.
Select stores in London, Vancouver, Toronto, Paris, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich will offer in-store demos for prospective buyers.
Major Navigation Improvements
Meta is making the voice of the navigation feature on Meta-Ray-Ban Display far more natural. It will reference the world in front of you instead of robotic street names, for example “turn left at the yellow house ahead”, instead of “turn left at Third Street.”
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It’s also adding two new navigation types, cycling and public transport, in addition to the current on-foot navigation.
However, Meta’s navigation feature remains only available in select cities, a major limitation compared to Snap Specs and the upcoming Samsung HUD glasses powered by Google’s software.
Selective Phone Notifications
At launch, Meta Ray-Ban Display could not mirror your phone notifications at all, something we harshly criticized in our review. It would show notifications for built-in applets and features like your text messages, WhatsApp, and Messenger, but not for your other phone apps.
A few months ago, Meta added an optional phone notification mirroring feature. But this was arguably even worse, as it shows all notifications, with no customization.
Now, Meta says you’ll be able to “control your notifications and choose the ones you want to turn off”.
Third-Party App Explorer
Earlier this year, Meta rolled out the ability to develop visual web apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display, controlled by Meta Neural Band, and developers have already built amazing things.
But discovering these web apps requires following the right developers on social media or knowing about the best third-party aggregators.
David Heaney
To make web apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display discoverable, “later this year” Meta is adding an Explore app on the glasses, which will surface and recommend what the company considers to be the best experiences to try out.
Eventually, it’s possible that this could expand to become a full-fledged app store, but Meta hasn’t said anything about that.
‘Hologram’ Avatars
Currently, when taking video calls on Meta Ray-Ban Display, the other person sees either nothing or your first-person view, if you choose to share it.
Later this year, Meta says it will roll out its new Hologram realistic avatar to US Meta Ray-Ban Display owners enrolled in the Early Access program, for use in WhatsApp video calls.
David Heaney
You set up your Hologram by scanning your face and providing a minute or so of sample speech to the Meta AI app. Then, once your Hologram is set up, when you make or receive a WhatsApp video call on Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the other person will see this synthetic version of you, with its facial expressions entirely derived from the device’s microphones.
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You can find more details about Hologram, including our hands-on impressions, in our full Hologram coverage here.
Calendar App On Display
Meta is adding a dedicated Calendar app to Meta Ray-Ban Display, which will let you “see who’s attending a meeting, accept or decline invites, and join meetings, all from your glasses”.
It expands on the calendar integration Meta first launched for its displayless glasses last year.
David Heaney
For now, the Calendar app on Meta Ray-Ban Display will only be available in the US.
